If you're a DTC brand, affiliate marketing seems like an obvious move.

But having a solid product and some software to generate tracking links is nowhere near enough.

Even though creators and influencers will be working hard on your behalf, you need to do a lot of homework to make sure they're successful.

This guide breaks down the non-negotiable elements your brand needs before affiliate marketing can become a reliable revenue channel rather than another disappointing marketing experiment.

But you can't determine if you're ready for something if you're not even clear on what that something truly is. So, let's clear the outdated definition of affiliate marketing.

What is affiliate marketing? (NOT just link sharing)

Affiliate marketing means someone promoting your products using a unique link and earning a commission on the sales that come from that link. This is a transactional view. It misses the strategic depth that makes modern affiliate programs successful, especially for direct-to-consumer brands.

While that transactional foundation remains, today's successful DTC brands approach affiliate marketing as relationship-building rather than transaction-generating. They invest in:

• Strategic partner selection: Finding creators and influencers who naturally connect with your target demographic and whose values align with your brand
• Comprehensive onboarding experiences: Educating creators about your brand story, product differentiation, and value proposition so they can speak authentically about what you offer
• Enabling authentic content: Providing partners with the tools and flexibility to integrate your products into their content in ways that feel natural and valuable to their audience
• Relationship nurturing: Building ongoing communication and support systems that make affiliates feel like valued extensions of your team rather than disposable promotion channels

When affiliates feel truly connected to your brand:

1. They create content that actually resonates.
2. They promote you consistently, not just during sales.
3. They send you customers who want your products, not just your discounts.

These customers stick around. They become loyal to your brand because they connected with your values, not just your promo code.

Check out this video 👇to know the step-by-step process of how to create an affiliate program that drives revenues, and not just likes.

5 questions to evaluate if your brand is ready for affiliate marketing

Go through these questions, and check how to evaluate your situation before going ahead with affiliate marketing.

1. Are you making a profit?

The first requirement for a successful affiliate program is positive unit economics. Your products must generate profit after accounting for all costs, including the additional 10-15% commission you'll pay to affiliates, AND the discount that affiliates will offer to their audience.

When you add affiliate commissions to already thin margins, you create unsustainable pressure on your business model. This leads to three problematic outcomes:

1. You'll be forced to restrict which products affiliates can promote (limiting their effectiveness)
2. You'll offer below-market commissions (attracting only low-quality affiliates)
3. You'll eventually need to shut down or dramatically restructure your program (damaging relationships)

The "growth at all costs" strategy doesn't work here.

Positive profit margins allow you to incentivize top-performing affiliates by increasing their commissions over time, keeping them motivated and engaged. If your margins are too tight, affiliates will eventually feel they're not growing with your brand and may leave for more lucrative opportunities.

👉 Calculate your "Affiliate-Ready Margin" by working backward from your current profit margin. Take your net margin (e.g., 65%), subtract both your planned affiliate commission (15%) and any standard customer discount codes (15%), ensuring the remaining margin (35% in this example) still allows for profitable operations. If your margin after these deductions falls below what you decide for a healthy business, either reconsider your pricing strategy or reduce your commission/discount offerings before launching.

2. Are you clear on your brand's value proposition?

Without clarity on what makes your brand different, affiliates default to promoting discounts rather than differentiation. This trains consumers to value your products only when discounted, eroding your margins and brand perception.

Even worse, they may misrepresent your brand, attracting customers with expectations you can't meet. Without proper guidance, affiliates often make exaggerated claims about benefits, compatibility, or performance. These misalignments lead to returns, negative reviews, and customer service burdens that damage both your reputation and the affiliate relationship.

If you're thinking… "We already have brand guidelines and a website—isn't that enough documentation for affiliates?"

No.

You don't want to simply hand affiliates a list of product features and let them create any narrative they choose. A successful affiliate program requires a single, consistent value proposition being repeated across social media multiple times. This repetition creates a continuous impact and reinforces your brand message.

Here’s a practical test to see if you know your brand's value proposition:

Can you explain in one sentence why specific customers should buy from you instead of competitors? Can you identify the exact type of customer who benefits most from your unique attributes? If these answers aren't crystal clear, your affiliates will struggle to create compelling, accurate content.

👉 Before launching an affiliate program, document your value proposition, ideal customer profile, and key differentiators. These become essential onboarding materials that transform casual promoters into effective brand ambassadors.

3. Do you know who your target audience is?

If you don't know who your target audience is, you won't know who can effectively influence them. The best affiliate partners are those who already have credibility with your exact target market.

Many brands approach affiliate marketing with vague audience definitions like "health-conscious women" or "tech enthusiasts," which are far too broad to identify the right partners.

What most brands miss is that your customers often trust people who don't look like them but think like them. Just because a creator matches your customer's age, gender, or location doesn't mean they have influence over them. Your audience follows people who share their values, goals, and worldview, not just their demographic profile.

For instance, a sustainability-focused skincare brand might find better affiliate performance with climate activists than beauty influencers, despite the latter seeming more category-relevant.

Successful programs require granular audience understanding that goes beyond basic demographics to include:

• The specific problems your customers are trying to solve
• Where do they currently get information and recommendations
• Which creators do they actually trust and follow
• What content formats do they most engage with
• What messaging resonates with them

Without this detailed knowledge, brands waste resources pursuing partnerships with creators who have large followings but minimal influence over their actual buyers. This results in high upfront costs (product samples, free access, partner time) with minimal conversion.

4. Are you ready to invest time in building relationships with affiliates?

The most common misconception in affiliate marketing is that it's a "set it and forget it" channel. But successful affiliate programs require consistent relationship management, not just technical administration.

Popular creators get offers from brands every day. They can quickly tell which companies just want to use them for sales versus those who value them as real partners. When you treat creators like they're nothing special and only message them about sales numbers, they notice, and they move on to other brands.

What makes this challenging is the gradual nature of relationship degradation.

Neglected affiliates don't immediately stop promoting your products—they simply reduce frequency, enthusiasm, and creativity in their promotions. They save their best placement opportunities and most compelling content for brands that actively engage with them.

Brands often underestimate the time required for these activities, assigning affiliate program management as a minor responsibility to already-overloaded team members. When relationship-building activities inevitably get deprioritized, program performance gradually declines.

• Before launching, designate a specific team member to own affiliate relationships with at least 5-7 dedicated hours weekly.
• Create a structured communication calendar with touchpoints for each affiliate tier (e.g., monthly calls with top performers, quarterly check-ins with mid-tier partners).
• If you cannot allocate this time consistently, consider delaying your program launch or partnering with an agency that specializes in affiliate relationship management.

5. Can you track and attribute sales to affiliates?

This is the most basic requirement for running an affiliate program: accurately tracking which sales come from which influencers. This cannot be managed with spreadsheets or unreliable free software. Those approaches inevitably lead to missing sales, incorrect attributions, and payment disputes.

When tracking fails, two costly problems occur:

1. Lost trust: If your partners don't get properly credited for the sales they generate, they'll quickly lose faith in your program. Once creators believe you're underpaying them (even accidentally), that reputation spreads quickly within influencer communities.
2. Lost money: Inadequate tracking can also lead to code leakage. This is where discount codes meant for specific affiliates get shared publicly on coupon sites. Without proper tracking, you end up paying commissions on sales that weren't actually influenced by your creators.

An influencer marketing platform like SARAL solves these problems by offering:

• Unique tracking links for each affiliate
• Secure, single-use discount codes
• Bulk generation capabilities for managing multiple partners
• Attribution that works even when customers don't purchase immediately
• Protection against code sharing and leakage

How to generate leak-proof affiliate codes with SARAL

Step 1: Go to Settings → General and create a new Discount Code Template using the "USERN" or “FIRSTN” format (automatically uses the creator's username).

Step 2: Enable "Single Use Per Customer" and "New Customers Only" restrictions to prevent code sharing.

Step 3: Set a minimum order value to protect against low-value redemptions.

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Step 4: Access your affiliate's profile from the Relationships board.

Step 5: Click "Generate Discount Code," select your leak-proof template, and click "Generate."

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Step 6: Generate a unique tracking link for the same affiliate to ensure both code and link attribution.

Step 7: Monitor usage patterns in SARAL's dashboard to spot any unusual redemption activity that might indicate leakage.

What to do next?

You're in an excellent position to launch a successful affiliate program…

If you answered yes to most of these questions.

Affiliate marketing offers significant advantages over traditional advertising methods - it's performance-based (you only pay for results), builds authentic relationships with promoters who genuinely believe in your products, and often delivers higher ROI than expensive billboards, TV commercials, or digital ads that many DTC brands default to.

But don't be discouraged….

If you couldn't confidently answer yes to all questions.

Most of these elements can be developed within a few weeks or months. You can refine your value proposition, improve your profit margins, create marketing materials, or implement proper tracking systems relatively quickly. Your commitment to building and nurturing relationships with quality affiliates is the most important factor.

Talk to the team at SARAL and see how we can help you overcome your obstacles quickly. Our platform can

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